"Ebay to hide all ID soon!" Topic

Got this flash today from eBay:

"Soon we will no longer display the complete user IDs of people bidding on any auction-style listing. Instead, we'll use asterisks such as x***y to protect our members' identities. Sellers will continue to see complete user IDs on their listings and the winning bidder's ID will be visible to everyone after the auction ends."

So from now on anyone who does not want to bid against me do not bid on an item where the ID starts with "V" Okay?

Sad to say I understand the reasons as I have been spammed many times for items I won and did not win. On the other hand I will no longer be able to check out the competion. Glad I have started to steer away from eBay.
VR
James Mattes

I do not like this at all. Now I cannot tell if I am bidding against a shill bidder. This strikes me as a bad thing.

Let's see. When I bid on something others will see x*2 instead of x42 and this will protect my identity.

Im not sure how well that will work.

Well as I have vojvoda as an email address on several email accounts (junk and HMGS stuff) I am one of those who it is easy to spam. But I do agree this stinks for checking out who I am bidding against and seeing thier profile and bid habits and history. For example if someone is bidding against me and has a history of buying GW figures I know they will go sky high on painted historical miniatures. If someone has a history of bidding within the last minute on items they win I can bet they are using a bidding service. All in all it will lead me to cut back and not buy as much. Overall I do not think it will hurt eBay in general but as for me that is more money to spend at the three conventions.
VR
James Mattes

There are a group of us who share in the hobby of 1/87 military vehicles. As a general courtesy, we don't bid against each other. This is going to make that much more difficult. Granted, it works in E-bay's favor, but I am really unhappy with the tone E-bay has taken of late.

I'm pretty much swearing off of E-bay sales – and purchases – for the foreseeable future. For gaming stuff, I'll either do direct sales via TMP or finally get around to having a go with Wargames Market. All of the other, vintage stuff that I was planning on selling off will go into a box for a few years until the next CEO pulls their head out.

Wyatt

"All of the other, vintage stuff that I was planning on selling off will go into a box for a few years until the next CEO pulls their head out."

Wyatt,that's pretty much what I just told my GF the other day. I'm jusy of the opinion that it's getting to be not worth the hassle. Maybe that's what somebody wants, but all I know is that's less of my money they're getting.

One more reason I'm steering away from Ebay. what little I have left in my store I let expire, make an attempt at 1 more auction or buy it now, then its over. I'll figure out something else, Besides, I'm one of the very unique wargamers…. my huge collection is almost complete and I'll spend more time playing. Good bye ebay

Luckily for me (not so much for my wallet), I've been finding a lot of great deals on the marketplace boards here and with various sales and offers from retailers. I still get some stuff on eBay, but not nearly as much as previously. There are days when I don't even visit eBay's site.

I'm still slogging away with E-bay for a while. I just hope that somebody comes along with a system that works just as well. The alternatives just aren't up to the mark yet.

The other problem is that E-bay will no doubt try to protect the mechanics of their programming if anybody else launches a similar site. (I seem to recall a case a while back where that happened?)

One of the big problems with me is that I don't just buy and sell wargaming and toys. I also collect vintage books, records, photographic equipment, and any other old junk I can lay my hands on. SO, a specialist market place doesn't suit me quite as well as E-bay.

With regards to being spammed. I have only been spammed from an E-bay contact once. That was somebody offering me a couple of rare records as they noticed that I had missed out on a sale – (I was glad to have got that spam. I bought his records, and am very pleased to have done so.) OK, so it by passed all the E-bay charges, and also the safety nets that they apparently put in place……

Wonderful, even more people I won't have to bid against!

It's a very short sighted view on E-bays part to shun the smaller sellers in favour of the big power sellers. OK, those power sellers probably generate more income. BUT, if more and more smaller dealers stop selling, because less people are looking and bidding. (If the end price on their items falls to a level making it non-viable to sell)

SO yes Thunder, for a while, there will be less people to bid against, you may well get some bargains, but that will soon dry up.

Then, when enough people have become disillusioned and moved on, the Power Sellers will notice a drop in sales. You think they'll stick around?

Actually I noticed that the scramble which letters are shown. Example mine shows up as p***i, yet my id id on ebay starts with an i and ends in a number 2.